Tag: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Forget FAANG and the “Magnificent Seven.” Here Are 2 “AI Five” Stocks to Buy Right Now.
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History is proof the U.S. stock market always climbs to new highs given enough time. But the stocks that lead the charge higher aren’t always the same. To help find the new leaders, Wall Street often groups them together to separate them from the rest of the market. For example, CNBC financial analyst Jim Cramer coined the FAANG acronym in 2017 to describe five of the largest technology companies at the time:
1. Facebook, which now trades as Meta Platforms
2. Apple
3. Amazon
4. Netflix
5. Google, which now trades as Alphabet
That leadership shifted in 2023 when a group of seven stocks drove the S&P 500 index to an annual return of twice its historical average. Bank of America analyst Michael Hartnett dubbed those stocks the “Magnificent Seven,” and they include:
1. Meta Platforms
2. Apple
3. Amazon
4. Alphabet
5. Microsoft
6. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)
7. Tesla
Image source: Getty Images.

It’s time for the “AI Five,” according to one analyst

With Tesla stock sinking 22% so far this year, Jim Cramer thinks it should be booted from the Magnificent Seven entirely. The company is facing sluggish electric vehicle sales in 2024, which could keep a lid on its stock price and weaken the power of the Magnificent Seven as a group.

It prompted one analyst — Glen Kacher from Light Street Capital — to rethink the stock market’s leadership altogether. He thinks investors should be focused on artificial intelligence (AI), so he has identified a new group of stocks and called it the “AI Five.” It includes:
1. Nvidia
2. Microsoft
3. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
4. Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD)
5. Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO)
Each company has a hand in developing the hardware and software necessary to bring AI to life. Here are two AI Five stocks investors should consider buying right now.

1. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

Advanced Micro Devices might be one of the best semiconductor stocks to own in 2024. Its new MI300 data center chips are designed to process AI workloads, and they are shaping up to be the main rivals to Nvidia’s industry-leading H100.

The MI300 comes in two configurations. The MI300X is a pure graphics processor (GPU) like the H100, whereas the MI300A combines GPU and central processing unit (CPU) hardware to create the world’s first accelerated processing unit (APU) for data centers. The MI300A will power the El Capitan supercomputer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and it’s expected to be the most powerful in the world when it comes online later this year.

Some of the world’s largest data center operators, companies like Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Oracle, are also racing to get their hands on MI300 chips. They have relied almost entirely on Nvidia up until now, but supply constraints are pushing them to look for viable alternatives, and AMD is ready.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, AMD issued a bullish forecast for the MI300. The company originally expected the GPU to pull in $2 billion worth of sales in 2024, but it raised that number to $3.5 billion, much to the delight of investors.

AI is also coming to personal computers, where users can process AI on-device for a faster experience, which reduces the reliance on external data centers. AMD’s Ryzen AI series of neural processing units (NPUs) already power more than 50 notebook designs, and the company is working with Microsoft to develop a new version of Windows that will run AI workloads more efficiently.

Millions of personal computers have already shipped with Ryzen AI chips, giving AMD a 90% market share in the segment. Ryzen AI drove the company’s Client segment revenue to $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, representing a whopping 62% year-over-year increase. AMD expects that momentum to continue, especially because it’s preparing to launch a next-generation chip that could be more than three times faster.

Simply put, 2024 is set to be incredibly exciting for AMD, and the company could be on the cusp of a multiyear growth cycle on the back of its new hardware slate.

2. Broadcom

As far as being an AI stock, Broadcom lives in the shadow of glamorous names like AMD and Nvidia. However, Broadcom is developing AI on multiple fronts, and its stock has delivered a 343% return over the last five years, so it definitely warrants some attention. Despite being founded in 1991, the company really took a leap forward when it merged with semiconductor giant Avago Technologies in 2016.

Broadcom is now a conglomerate that not only includes Avago but also several acquired companies like semiconductor device supplier CA Technologies, cybersecurity giant Symantec, and cloud software developer VMware. Broadcom spent a whopping $98.6 billion on those three acquisitions since 2018.

VMware, which had a price tag of $69 billion alone, is an increasingly important company in the context of the AI boom. Its software allows users to run virtual machines to distribute cloud infrastructure more efficiently. For example, one user on one server might only utilize 10% of its capacity, but virtual machines allow multiple users to plug into that server so it operates at capacity. Considering so many companies are racing to access AI data center infrastructure, optimization is one way they can squeeze the most value out of what they have.

Broadcom itself is also considered a leader in networking and server connectivity solutions for the data center. It developed a high-bandwidth switch called Tomahawk 5, which is designed to accelerate AI and machine learning workloads. A switch regulates how fast data travels from one point to another, and considering developers are feeding billions of data points to powerful GPUs to train AI models, it has become an important piece of the infrastructure puzzle.

Broadcom generated a record-high $35.8 billion in revenue during fiscal 2023 (ended Oct. 29), which was an increase of 8% compared to fiscal 2022. However, Broadcom’s revenue is expected to grow by 40% in fiscal 2024 to $50 billion, thanks to the inclusion of VMware’s financial results for the first time.

Based on Broadcom’s $42.25 in non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share in fiscal 2023 and its current stock price of $1,226.55, it trades at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 29.1. That’s a 9% discount to the 32.1 P/E of the Nasdaq-100 index, which implies Broadcom is still cheap relative to its peers in the tech sector.

Given the company’s growing presence in AI through acquisitions and in-house development, Broadcom looks like a great AI Five stock to buy now and hold — especially at this price.

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They just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Advanced Micro Devices made the list — but there are 9 other stocks you may be overlooking.

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Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Bank of America is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bank of America, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia, Oracle, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Forget FAANG and the “Magnificent Seven.” Here Are 2 “AI Five” Stocks to Buy Right Now. was originally published by The Motley Fool
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February 23, 2024
Lawrence Livermore grabs two spots in DOE’s Energy Earthshot program

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Newswise — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists will lead and co-lead projects in support of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) new Energy Earthshot program.

The Energy Earthshots Initiative calls for innovation and collaboration to tackle the toughest topics in energy-related research. In January, DOE announced Office of Science funding for the Energy Earthshot Research Centers (EERCs)—they will build off a concept the DOE successfully demonstrated in the previous Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) and the Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program. The new EERCs will support fundamental research to accelerate breakthroughs in support of the Energy Earthshots Initiative.

The Energy Earthshots are designed to stimulate integrated program development and execution across the DOE’s basic science and energy technology offices. They are part of an all-hands-on-deck approach to provide science and technology innovations that the nation needs to address tough technological challenges required to achieve our climate goals. The Energy Earthshots will accelerate breakthroughs toward more abundant, affordable and reliable clean energy solutions and the carbon dioxide removal needed to counterbalance hard-to-abate greenhouse gas emissions.

Six Energy Earthshots have been announced so far: Hydrogen Shot™, Long Duration Storage Shot™, Carbon Negative Shot™, Enhanced Geothermal Shot™, Floating Offshore Wind Shot™ and Industrial Heat Shot™. They are supported by the three primary Office of Science program offices: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences and Biological and Environmental Research.

Jennifer Pett-Ridge, head of LLNL’s Carbon Initiative, will lead a $19 million center called “Terraforming Soil,” which will support the Carbon Negative Shot. Of the total award, LLNL will receive ~$17 million.

LLNL scientist Jiaqi Li will serve as the deputy director for the “Center for Coupled Chemo-Mechanics of Cementitious Composites,” which will support the Enhanced Geothermal Shot. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) leads this center, and LLNL will receive $1.9 million over four years for its role of the project.

Terraforming Soil

To reduce the United States’ net carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions to zero and limit the impacts of global warming, it is essential to actively remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. Soils store a vast amount of carbon in both organic and inorganic forms — on the order of 3,000 billion tons globally — this is more carbon than is found in the atmosphere and land plants combined.

While the United States’ 166 million hectares of agricultural soils have lost a vast amount of carbon in the past century due to cultivation and erosion, there is clear potential to reverse this trend and actively manage agricultural lands with strategies that capture CO₂from the atmosphere. The Terraforming Soil Energy Earthshot Research Center (EERC) will research new bio- and geo- engineered techniques to understand, predict and accelerate scalable and affordable CO₂ drawdown in soils, via both organic and inorganic carbon cycle pathways.

“Our goal is to advance the fundamental understanding of CO₂ drawdown in soils through both organic and inorganic pathways, measuring soil C storage capacity, durability and regional variations that affect needed land-management practices,” Pett-Ridge said.

The Terraforming Soil EERC team includes 50 world-class experts in soil carbon cycling, photosynthesis biochemistry, plant/microbial gene engineering and genomics, mineral geochemistry, machine learning, exascale modeling and computing, additive manufacturing and in situ isotope-based characterization.

The center will bridge cutting-edge analytical and computational studies with a commitment to engage with community stakeholders, exploring the technical, social and economic implications of engineered soil CO₂ drawdown. In addition, the team will emphasize diverse training opportunities for students and early career scientists and amplify equity and inclusion throughout the research pipeline.

Collaborators include the University of California Berkeley, University of California Davis, Rice University, Princeton University, Yale University, Carleton College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northern Arizona University, Colorado State University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Andes Ag, Inc. and the Woodwell Climate Research Center.

Center for Coupled Chemo-Mechanics of Cementitious Composites

LLNL will conduct fundamental research to understand and predict chemo-mechanics of sustainable materials within Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) environments and develop new materials to overcome major challenges in deploying cost effective EGS.

Geothermal well environments are arguably the most challenging for cement to survive, and multiple problems of wells durability and performance are associated with cementing materials and well-cementing methods. These include, but are not limited to, poor cement acid resistance, poor thermal and mechanical stress resistance under cyclic thermo-mechanical loads, poor bonding with metal casing and, as a result, poor casing corrosion protection. Well integrity issues linked to cement degradation and failure are more severe for the high temperature conditions that EGS wells undergo during hydraulic stimulation operations and thermal shocks. Furthermore, cementing operations during geothermal well constructions suffer from cement slurries losses into formations, long waiting times for cement to solidify or rapid uncontrolled cement solidification followed by drill out operations or abandoning the well.

“To address the durability and sustainable issues of enhanced geothermal wells, a fundamental understanding of chemo-mechanics of alternative cementitious materials that could provide cost-effective, and sustainable solutions for EGS is required,” Li said.

The proposed work will focus on gaining fundamental understanding of reaction mechanisms, equilibrium and phase compositions, mechanical properties for cementitious composites under EGS conditions designed industrial wastes. The knowledge generated by the project will form a comprehensive framework for informed development and commercialization of 1) environmentally sustainable, durable, cost effective well materials, including cementitious composites and inorganic coatings and 2) new well designs forgoing the use of cementitious materials in EGS wells. To achieve this goal advanced high-energy analytical and computational techniques will be used in design, monitoring and characterization of model systems.

Besides BNL and LLNL, collaborators include Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Cornell University, Princeton University, The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

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September 29, 2023
Richard W. Mies awarded Livermore’s 2023 John S. Foster Medal

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Newswise — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Kim Budil today announced that the 2023 John S. Foster, Jr. Medal is awarded to retired U.S. Navy Admiral Richard W. Mies. The 8th recipient of the prestigious Foster Award, Mies has served as a member of the LLNL Board of Governors since 2004 and is being recognized for his exceptional and inspirational career dedicated to national security, nuclear deterrence, and scientific innovation. Mies will be recognized at ceremony in his honor in Livermore on Oct.18.

“Admiral Mies embodies the highest ideals of service to our nation,” Budil said. “His dedication to national security and innovation – and nuclear deterrence in particular – has had a profound impact. He continues to act as a bridge between the Department of Defense, National Nuclear Security Administration, and the nuclear security enterprise, fostering the highest sense of purpose and commitment to teamwork. We are honored to recognize his remarkable contributions with the 2023 John S. Foster Jr. Medal.”

A distinguished nuclear submarine officer, Mies served a 35-year career in the U.S. Navy and held various key positions, including leading U.S. Strategic Command for four years. Following his retirement in 2002, he continued to contribute significantly to national security, serving as a senior vice president of Science Applications International Corporation and as the chairman of the Department of Defense Threat Reduction Advisory Committee. He presently serves as chairman of the U.S. Strategic Command Strategic Advisory Group and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory national security science directorate advisory board. He is also a long-standing member of the National Academy’s Committee on International Security and Arms Control.

A distinguished graduate of the US Naval Academy, Mies completed post-graduate education at Oxford University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Harvard University. He holds a master’s degree in government administration and international relations.

“Dr. Johnny Foster is an icon in our strategic deterrence community, and I am deeply honored and indeed humbled to have been selected for this prestigious award named after him,” Mies said. “I have been privileged to have worked closely with many of the past Foster Award recipients and am deeply indebted and grateful to each of them for their mentorship, friendship, and their sustained, distinctive, and selfless service to our Nation.”

The John S. Foster Jr. Medal, administered by Lawrence Livermore National Security, was established to honor individuals who embody the qualities that distinguished Dr. John S. Foster Jr. throughout his career, including strong national security focus, inspiring leadership, integrity, and scientific innovation. This award also recognizes cultivation inclusive teamwork and an atmosphere of openness in national security innovation, which Mies has consistently championed.

Each year, the LLNL director bestows the Foster Medal upon a deserving recipient, who receives a citation, a gold medal bearing the likeness of John S. Foster Jr., and a $25,000 cash award. Past honorees include pioneers in nuclear security, military strategy, and arms control, each with impactful contributions to national security and scientific advancement.

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

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September 20, 2023
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California State University, Bakersfield and Livermore Lab Foundation sign MOU to advance clean energy

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Newswise — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) and the Livermore Lab Foundation (LLF) have signed an agreement to collaborate on advanced and clean-energy technologies, research opportunities and community partnerships that have the potential to shape the future of energy in the state and bring high-quality jobs to the region.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) will build on the region’s position as an energy pioneer and innovator as well as CSUB’s new Energy Innovation Building, funded in the 2022-2023 California budget and set to break ground next year.

In addition to the clean-energy focus, LLNL, CSUB and LLF will collaborate in decarbonization science, materials and advanced manufacturing, hydrogen technologies, energy storage, critical materials, STEM-student engagement and public outreach programs. The collaboration also will benefit the region through student fellowships, an innovation lab, future convenings and potential trips to the Lab by community stakeholders. “This collaboration builds upon Bakersfield’s strong academic commitment to educate the next generation of STEM leaders,” said LLNL Director Kim Budil. “It will also advance energy technologies and community engagement as a collaborative effort in the region. We’re pleased to help support Kern County’s energy transition with this agreement.”

“This expression of common cause and collaboration to advance climate resiliency and a new era in energy represents an unprecedented opportunity for CSUB and our entire region,” said CSUB President Lynnette Zelezny. “The pre-eminent climate and energy scientists in the nation will have a home base at CSUB, and the discoveries made here will cultivate a new generation of researchers. I want to thank Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Livermore Lab Foundation for their partnership and belief in the promise of our region to lead.”

The memo of understanding builds upon the Lab’s and Foundation’s commitment to Kern County that began in 2020 when the Laboratory published its “Getting to Neutral” report. Kern County was identified as an important focus area to help California achieve its ambitious climate and net-neutrality goals because of the region’s potential for carbon storage.

The report cited Kern’s oil fields as strong candidates for carbon storage sites, while also supporting the creation and scale up of carbon-negative technologies and clean technology jobs to further the county’s strong commitment to energy innovation.

Other work activities identified in the MOU include the exchange of researchers between LLNL and CSUB facilities, faculty sabbaticals, post-doctoral internships and the possibility of joint publications, joint grant proposals, lectures, symposiums and strategic meetings.

In collaboration with both LLNL and LLF, the exchange could also include undergraduate internships and fellowships. Two CSUB students were recently selected by the Foundation to serve as inaugural carbon fellows at LLNL this summer– with research projects specific to carbon removal and net neutrality. In addition, the MOU highlights the creation of STEM programs and the development of community benefit plans as well as science and equity-based community engagement in the greater Kern County region.

In 2019, LLNL launched the Laboratory of Energy Applications for the Future (LEAF), a center designed to deliver solutions that enhance energy security, infrastructure reliability and climate resilience. The goal is to deploy Laboratory solutions and developments to external stakeholders in industry, academia and government. The center is advancing technologies, including architected and solid-state batteries, supercapacitors, capacitive water deionization, carbon capture and conversion, solar cells, biomaterials for sorbents and catalysts and hydrogen production and storage.

The MOU also opens the door for CSUB to create a laboratory with objectives like those of LLNL’s LEAF lab. CSUB students, as well as industry innovators would have the facilities and mentoring to work closely on projects in carbon management, geological carbon removal and storage, new and advanced materials and energy storage and transport, working closely with LLNL experts.

“Kern County has a tremendous opportunity to play a critical role in strengthening the STEM workforce pipeline and create good-paying jobs. The Livermore Lab Foundation is delighted to support CSU Bakersfield on that journey as part of this unique triad agreement,” said Sally Allen, LLF’s executive director.

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September 19, 2023
LLNL scientists among finalists for new Gordon Bell climate modeling award

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Newswise — A team from Lawrence Livermore and seven other Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories is a finalist for the new Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modeling for running an unprecedented high-resolution global atmosphere model on the world’s first exascale supercomputer.

The Gordon Bell submission, led by Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) chief computational scientist Mark Taylor, details the team’s record-setting demonstration of the Simple Cloud Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model (SCREAM) on Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s 1.2 exaFLOP (1.2 quintillion computing operations per second) Frontier machine.

Incorporating state-of-the-art parameterizations for fluid dynamics, microphysics, moist turbulence and radiation, SCREAM is a full-featured atmospheric general-circulation model developed for very fine-resolution simulations on exascale machines. The effort is led by LLNL staff scientist Peter Caldwell, who also heads the Lab’s Climate Modeling group.

A cornerstone of SCREAM development is computationally-efficient performance-portable design. This feature allows SCREAM to become — as far as the team is aware — the first nonhydrostatic global atmospheric model with resolution finer than 5 kilometers to run on an exascale supercomputer, the first to run at scale on both NVIDIA and AMD Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) systems, and the first to exceed 1 simulated-year-per-day of throughput. SCREAM earned its Gordon Bell finalist position from a record-setting run performed earlier this year, and a revised submission boasts results 54% faster than the original entry, obtaining a performance of 1.26 simulated years per day on 8,192 Frontier nodes.

“The Gordon Bell Prize is the highest honor in high performance computing,” said LLNL’s Caldwell. “E3SM is very proud and excited to be finalists for the inaugural year of the Gordon Bell Climate Award. We worked extremely hard for five years to develop a model which makes efficient use of exascale computers, providing more trustworthy and higher-fidelity predictions of future climate than were previously possible. The aim of this new prize matches our goals exactly, so we were hopeful about our chances.”

What separates SCREAM from other climate models is that it was written in C++ and uses the Kokkos library, enabling it to perform efficiently across the spectrum of computer architectures, Caldwell explained. The design choice allowed the SCREAM team to run on Frontier faster than any other climate model, he said, adding that “most climate and weather models are struggling to take advantage of the GPUs that power most of today’s top powerful supercomputers. SCREAM is of huge interest to other modeling centers as a successful example of how to make this transition.”

The SCREAM effort grew out of the E3SM team, a multi-lab DOE partnership led by LLNL scientist Dave Bader, that is tasked with developing a state-of-the-art climate modeling, simulation and prediction project for exascale supercomputers. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), the E3SM team includes researchers and computational scientists at LLNL and the Sandia, Argonne, Brookhaven, Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge and Pacific Northwest national laboratories. Other LLNL staff named in the Gordon Bell entry include scientists Aaron Donahue, Chris Terai and Renata McCoy.

Team members said the achievement represents a breakthrough in climate modeling and a significant milestone for the E3SM project, which aims to bring DOE’s cutting-edge computer science to bear on the climate simulation challenge by simulating the climate system at very high resolution. Such high resolution permits explicit resolution of large convective circulations and other important atmospheric phenomena, thereby avoiding critical sources of uncertainty in traditional climate models, according to researchers. Fine resolution is also necessary to capture critical aspects of the climate that might impact conditions in the United States in the coming decades, such as extreme temperatures, storms and sea-level rise.

The Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modeling “aims to recognize innovative parallel computing contributions toward solving the global climate crisis,” according to ACM. It will be awarded for the first time this year at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC23) in Denver, and accompanied by a $10,000 award provided by Gordon Bell. Winners will be selected based on their potential to impact climate modeling and related fields.

For more on E3SM, visit https://e3sm.org/.

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

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September 15, 2023